Originally Posted by Rob

I'm assuming this is an open plan style garden. No fencing or otherwise to mark the boundary, just a fair bit of grass. In which case could there be an easy misunderstanding as to where the boundary lay? Might your neighbour even beleive that that bit of garden was his?

The cable installers would be working from the pavement T point to if that was in the wrong place from yeasr ago when the ducts were laid, then everything would follow on now. I'd have to look up definitions but for criminal damage to have been doen by digging up the garden there would have had to be some form of intent or recklessness to cause damage to the garden of another. This is a civil rather than criminal issue.

Although you don't want the service crossing your property, don't just cut the cable. Give notice that you will be doing so both the VM / Cobra and your neighbour. Only cut it once that notice has expired. That way you are continuing to act in a fair and reasonable matter and trying not to escalate a problem. Remember two wrongs don't make a right and rushing into a resolution won't help anyone.

It is important to remember that you don't want to create bad feeling with your neighbour even if it starts from something that isn't your fault. You both have to live there afterwards and bad neighbourt relationships can be a right pain. If you end up falling out in such a way there there is a dispute with him you might be required to declare such a dispute to any prospective purchaser of your property. That will immediately downvalue your home, and make it harder to sell.